Bruins Learn Lesson From Tyler Seguin, Promise More 'Patience' With David Pastrnak And Young Talent
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- In the NHL, most player development takes significant time. It's exceedingly rare for young players, even top draft picks, to enter the league fully formed. For a player to achieve that in the same uniform as the team that drafted him requires patience.
In their attempts to develop and integrate young talent, the Boston Bruins have largely removed the word "patience" from their vocabulary in recent years. Most notably, with Peter Chiarelli as general manager, former No. 2-overall pick Tyler Seguin lasted just three seasons in Boston before being shipped to the Dallas Stars, where he has scored 234 points in 223 games. In 2015-16, he helped lead the Stars to the top seed in the Western Conference and is expected to return to the ice in time for their opening round playoff matchup against the Minnesota Wild.
While Seguin still has plenty to prove as a playoff performer and leader in Dallas, he's certainly established himself one of the NHL's premier offensive centermen and, with home ice in the Western Conference Playoffs, has a chance to really make the Bruins' impatience sting.
SEE ALSO: Zolak & Bertrand: Julien, Bruins Show Lack Of Urgency
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney indicated at Thursday's press conference with head coach Claude Julien, who is staying for another season, that the team is committed to its rising crop of young talents. He name-dropped winger David Pastrnak, who scored 15 goals in 51 games in his second NHL season - and scored the Bruins' only goal in their season-ending 6-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators - but, when healthy, frequently lost ice time due to defensive mistakes.
"David Pastrnak is a great example of a player that we're going to have a tremendous amount of patience with, and Claude has that patience with," said Sweeney. "Very exciting player, big part of our organization going forward, and we need to make sure that we're developing him in the right manner."
Sweeney cited Bruins core players who developed at their own pace, practiced patience, and ultimately worked, like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand. On the other side of that equation is Julien, who has long had a quick trigger when it comes to demoting or benching young, mistake-prone players. Julien would ostensibly lengthen his leash under the team's supposed new philosophy, should some of the team's younger prospects land spots on the NHL roster.
Sweeney stressed the need for patience from both the coaches and players in their development, a quality that has been largely absent in recent seasons.
"When players have been on board with [development plans] and been patient with their own personal development, then it really works and your team is successful as a result of that," Sweeney said. "We're going to have [to] maintain that patience.
"We have a very, very bright future with a number of young players that we have and recently added to our organization, and it's rightfully so to be excited about that, but it's also imperative to be patient to allow them to be the types of players [they can be] and hit their ceilings."
It's hard to read that last sentence and think of anyone but Seguin. While he may never become an all-around championship talent and leader on par with the likes of the Blackhawks' Jonathan Toews, it wouldn't have hurt the Bruins to see how Seguin fit in when he hit his actual ceiling as a player, and that's certainly no reason to pull the plug as early as the Bruins did. They don't want to make that same mistake again, with Pastrnak or any of the team's other valuable young assets.
The Bruins have several other young players who should be major parts of the future of the team, including 2015 first-round picks Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zachary Senyshyn, and college prospects like BU's Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson and Matt Grzelcyk.
Seguin may never be what the Bruins envisioned as a franchise center, but he's undoubtedly a highly valuable player with a rare offensive skill set. In the wake of the team's recent failures with Seguin and other young prospects, Sweeney sounds committed to discovering the true ceilings of the team's top prospects while they're still wearing the spoked B, and they will be better off in the long run because of it.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
